Wednesday, July 11, 2007

This thing isn't going away...

When I started this blog I had no intention of spending so much time commenting on the Islamic jihad against the west commonly called the war on terror. Yet I find it difficult to avoid the conclusion that this thing isn't going away easily or soon and in all likelihood is going to get worse. And no matter how some would like to define this war (Iraq is a diversion, it's only an intelligence problem, etc.) it has been and is being defined by the enemy. The radical jihadists of al Qaeda have been waging war against the U.S. (and others) for years, both in word and in deed. As a country we came to that sobering realization on September 11, 2001. Since then, with the war in Iraq, we have come to the point where many even question whether there really is a war on terror. I am not going to wade into that argument right now. Suffice to say, I believe the evidence is overwhelming for those willing to see it. I believe the still rising and real threat by radical Islam against the west is 'the' singular issue of today. And as of now, we are far from a consensus as to how to respond to that threat.

Many in Congress want to precipitously pull out of the war in Iraq. Major media news reporting on events there is woefully inadequate, leaving the impression that nothing happens there except car bombings, IED bombings, and general mayhem. Conventional wisdom has it that Iraq is some kind of "civil war," or sectarian battleground that the U.S. military has no business in. This blog has provided numerous links to sources that show otherwise. And as this debate again boils up in Congress, I find myself distressed at the dearth of reporting about what is at stake and what progress is occurring in Iraq. I find myself distressed at the fecklessness of those opposing this war effort.

In today's Wall Street Journal, Kimberly Kagan (an affiliate of Harvard's John M. Olin Institute of Strategic Studies and executive director of the Institute for the Study of War in Washington) does her part to divide the perception of failure from the actual very real progress being accomplish militarily in Iraq. The article is Moving Forward In Iraq... The "surge" is working. Will Washington allow the current progress to continue? There is a war being waged against this country by radical Islamics (AQ, Iran). Here is a recent news item from the AP regarding al Qaeda in Iraq: Al-Qaeda’s deputy leader sought to bolster the terror network’s main arm in Iraq in a new video released Thursday, calling on Muslims to rally behind it at a time when the group is on the defensive, faced with U.S. offensives and splits with other insurgent groups.

The main battle ground is in Iraq according to the very words of that enemy... from other news reports:

"Ayman Al-Zawahiri defended the Islamic State of Iraq — the insurgent umbrella group headed by Al Qaeda — against critics among Islamic militant groups, saying it was a vanguard for fighting off the U.S. military and eventually establishing a “caliphate” of Islamic rule across the region."

"Al-Zawahiri, the top deputy of Usama bin Laden, called on Muslims to follow a two-pronged strategy: work at home to topple “corrupt” Arab regimes and join Al Qaeda’s “jihad,” or holy war, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia to fight and train “to prepare for the next jihad."

"Al Qaeda’s declaration of the Islamic State of Iraq last year was a dramatic move aimed at staking out its leadership of Iraq’s insurgency. Allying itself with several smaller Iraqi Sunni insurgent groups, it presented the Islamic State as an alternative government within Iraq, claiming to hold territory."

Check out the excellent reporting being done by Michael Yon to get further details on what the situation is on the ground in Iraq.

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John Owen...

"Let faith look on Christ in the gospel as he is set forth dying and crucified for us. Look on him under the weight of our sins, praying, bleeding, dying; bring him in that condition into thy heart by faith; apply his blood so shed to thy corruptions: do this daily."

The Mere Mercy of God

This calling of Abram is a signal instance of the gratuitous mercy of God. Had Abram been beforehand with God by any merit of works? Had Abram come to him, or conciliated his favour? Nay, we must ever recall to mind that he was plunged in the filth of idolatry; and God freely stretches forth his hand to bring back the wanderer. He deigns to open his sacred mouth, that he may show to one, deceived by Satan's wiles, the way of salvation.

But this is done designedly, in order that the manifestation of the grace of God might become the more conspicuous in his person. For he is an example of the vocation of us all; for in him we perceive, that, by the mere mercy of God, those things that are not are raised from nothing, in order that they may begin to be something.

-John Calvin, Genesis, (Banner of Truth), p. 343

"Nor the faith also does not shut out the justice of our good works, necessarily to be done afterwards of duty towards GOD (for we are most bounden to serve GOD, in doing good deeds, commanded by him in his holy Scripture, all the days of our life): But it excludes them, so that we may not do them to this intent, to be made good by doing of them. For all the good works that we can do, be imperfect, and therefore not able to deserve our justification: but our justification doth come freely by the mere mercy of God..." (Thomas Cranmer - Homily of Justification)

Be Not Deceived...

Sin is never less quiet, than when it seems to be most quiet; and, its waters are for the most part deep, when they are still.- John Owen

Justification-Sanctification/Law-Gospel

In short, I affirm, that not by our own merit but by faith alone, are both our persons and works justified; and that the justification of works depends on the justification of the person, as the effect on the cause. (John Calvin, Acts of the Council of Trent with the Antidote)

The law guides, directs, commands, all things that are against the interest and rule of sin. It judgeth and condemneth both the things that promote it and the persons that do them; it frightens and terrifies the consciences of those who are under its dominion. But if you shall say unto it, “What then shall we do? this tyrant, this enemy, is too hard for us. What aid and assistance against it will you afford unto us? what power will you communicate unto its destruction?” Here the law is utterly silent, or says that nothing of this nature is committed unto it of God: nay, the strength it hath it gives unto sin for the condemnation of the sinner: “The strength of sin is the law.” But the gospel, or the grace of it, is the means and instrument of God for the communication of internal spiritual strength unto believers. By it do they receive supplies of the Spirit or aids of grace for the subduing of sin and the destruction of its dominion… (John Owen, A Treatise of the Dominion of Sin and Grace)